So, how many more times is Ehud Barak going to apologize to the Arab community for the events of the year 2000? Does he expect his apology to be accepted and all forgiven just because he said it? Why did he feel he needed to apologize again - if his first apology years ago was not enough, what made him think this apology would be any different?  His apology actually seems pathetic to me, insincere, groveling and as if he has no idea what the relevant and important issues are in the year 2019  when there are other issues and nobody is even thinking about the year 2000.

Ehud Barak put out the following snarky election campaign video. The video does not discuss policies in any way but is a dig at Netanyahu who seems to never pay for himself but always has friends who pay for him. I like the snarkiness of the video.

The fiasco is that during the video, Barak pulls out his credit card to lecture Netanyahu. Barak did not bother getting a fake card, covering the number or turning it over. Thus, Barak exposed his actual credit card information to the entire world - or at least to the people who watch his videos. After realizing what happened, Barak was forced to cancel the card and have a new card issued. I can't wait to see how Netanyahu uses this fiasco in a coming response video.

I anyone thought Ehud Barak was trying to cozy up to the Haredi parties by talking about canceling the entire draft law, he's got another think coming. I thought it was strange at first, considering Barak as Prime Minister way back when in the year 2000 ran a program he called the civil revolution in which he tried to roll back the religious influence on daily life of general Israelis.

Back then it was pretty bad and intense. The religious and Haredi parties saw it as a direct attack on them. The friction was intense, and when Barak authorized the transport of a massive transformer by the electric Company on Shabbos that brought about his downfall as religious parties backed out of supporting him.

People thought this time along might be different, as he remembers what brought about his downfall last time and as he sees the difficulty presented to Gantz considering the strong connection between the Haredi parties and Netanyahu/Likud. Then Barak spoke about his plans for canceling the draft law and people were sure he is softening the Haredim up for a potential coalition.

Sure enough, that might be over. It looks like Barak's civil revolution might be back. Today Ehud Barak announced that he is committed to a number of things that he will insist be included in any government he joins. Along with cancellation of the draft law, Barak commits to establishing a final border for Israel within two years thus guaranteeing security and a Jewish majority in Israel for generations to come, free education form age 0, no lines in emergency rooms, decrease cost of living by 20% and no religious coercion - no "hadata" in the education system, yes to civil marriage within a year, and yes to public transportation on Shabbos. This is along the lines of Barak's 1999 commitment to take Israel out of Lebanon, which he kept, and his later post-election commitment to his civil revolution.




Ehud Barak is not going to be romancing the Haredi parties with these promises...

Ehud Barak has announced his plans to deal with the Draft Law. He calls the entire thing a bluff and being that none of the various attempts have worked, it is time to come up with a different approach.

Baraks approach is to break the strong connection between the Haredi parties and Netanyahu. He wants to be seen as solving the biggest problem for the Haredi parties - the draft law - and that will open the Haredi parties up to possible political arrangements besides for a coalition with Netanyahu. And Barak also thinks that this will effect a significant increase in Haredim joining the workforce.

Barak's new approach will have four stages:

1. The IDF will draft to fill its needs and whoever wants to serve will be drafted. The IDF salaries for soldiers will be increased to be "appropriate", whatever that means.

2. Everyone else, those who do not get drafted to the IDF, will serve in Sherut Leumi or Sherut Ezrachi - National Service or Civilian Service. This will include everyone who does not get drafted - Haredim, Arabs and anyone else.

3. The maximum possible number of Haredim will then join the workforce, including men and women.

4. There will be a respectable arrangement for a group the best Torah-learners and their tstaus will be "torasam umanusam" - torah is their trade. This will be in line with the tradition set by David Ben Gurion and in line with the Jewish commitment to tradition.


Barak's first step sounds almost like Feiglin's. Feiglin wants to cancel the draft law completely and make a professional army with a high salary that will be attractive for those who choose to serve. Barak seems to be saying something similar -  nobody HAS to serve, but a good salary will attract many to serve. He still insists it will be a "people's army", but I think that with no obligation and an easy out, he will end up being very surprised to see how few actually do want to continue giving up 3 years of their life rather than start university or travel.

Barak's second step seems to forget the fact that the mainstream Haredi public, and especially the leadership, is against Sherut Leumi as vociferously as they are opposed to real IDF service. Maybe he thinks they can brought to compromise on this in exchange for cancellation of the draft, but I dont see it happening.

Barak's third step seems to forget the recent study that shows the IDF service is not the impediment to joining the workforce that we all thought. Perhaps Barak disagrees, or maybe the results and analysis published were just one way to read the information but maybe it is not accurate. I dont know. I would not be surprised to see, should Barak win or end up in government (he says this will be a condition of his joining a government , not just if he becomes prime minister) and implement this, that he'll cancel the draft (if even possible) and the mainstream and majority of Haredi men will still not join the workforce, continuing to prefer the kolel life.

Barak's fourth step leaves open the question of who will decide which avreichim are the truly exceptional and how will it be decided. This is always the question in any proposal of a full exemption for the exceptional "few". Likely it will end up with those spots being given to the children and friends of rosh yeshivas and other haredi elite with protexia, rather than those who actually deserve it.

The one thing I do like about this is that he is making an attempt to try something new rather than rehashing all the old ideas...

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced earlier today the latest acquisition to his as yet unnamed political party.Somehow he landed Sagit Peretz-Deri, a local Bet Shemesh activist and lawyer.



I happen to know Sagit a bit. She is smart, intelligent, thoughtful and energetic. Being that she used to be in the right wing camp, as a member of Habayit Hayehudi, and then I think she supported Bennett's new Yemin Chdash party, I am not sure how this happened that she moved over so far to the Left. It will be interesting to hear how she made this decision when she puts out a public statement.

I think the right-wing parties really need to make a cheshbon nefesh and try to figure out why they are losing so many good people.

A new initiative to cancel the upcoming elections is underway. The initiative is being led by MK Yuli Edelstein, seemingly at the behest of PM Netanyahu. While it has yet to be explained how this initiative is working differently than the previous one, it seems to be a separate and different initiative. Edelstein himself says there is political demand for this. The question is if there is any legal way they can realistically do this.

The reason given is that the people clearly don't want elections. The elections are wasteful and unnecessary.

Let us not forget, this was true two weeks ago when the Likud led by Netanyahu decided we have to go to new elections because the people wanted a right-wing government and the results of the elections did not allow him to form one. Then it was necessary, and now it is wasteful and unnecessary. The entire Likud followed along and did what Netanyahu told him to do and support the dispersal of the Knesset and move to elections. Suddenly we hear all these Likudniks saying elections are not necessary. And not just Likudniks, but all the others as well. Kahlon supported the dispersal vote 100% but now is supporting the move to cancel elections. Few politicians have the spine to do what they believe in - they seem to all be afraid of Netanyahu and feel they must stay on his good side. I guess they are worried that if they cross him he will deem them leftists.

The Haredi politicians have some integrity in saying they will not automatically support it. They clarify that they never wanted these wasteful elections, but do not want a government with Yair Lapid and Lieberman in it. They will check what such elections would bring, and what parties would join together if elections are canceled, and then decide whether or not to support the initiative.

Bennett has the most to lose by a move to cancel elections, yet he put out a statement supporting the initiative to cancel. I suspect he knows the initiative has such minute odds of actually passing that he is safe in making himself appear as concerned for the greater good even at his own expense while he points out the pettiness of Bibi and others. Perhaps, he feels, he can take away a few votes by people who see him now as stately while Bibi is petty.

Such an initiative, which is really a long-shot, seems to assume that if elections are canceled a unity government of sorts would be formed. There is a war of words as to whether or not Likud has made any proposals or offers to Kachol Lavan. Either way, Kachol Laval has, at least publicly, said no. They say Netanyahu already started the process of elections and there is no going back. Without Kachol Lavan, and possibly without some others, they almost definitely cannot get this off the ground. And even if they did, if no unity government is formed, then we are back where we started and nothing has changed.

Avigdor Lieberman said he does not care about the elections, they were pushed by netanyahu. He will push for a unity government with Likud Kachol Lavan and Yisrael Beyteynu whether we have elections or not.

What I find interesting is that Likud is pushing this right now. Just to follow the thought to the end. Let's say the elections are canceled. Then what? Does Netanyahu think he will get another chance to try t form a government? I am not sure why he thinks that. He already had his chance. He already used the full extension period. And he failed. My assumption is that if elections are canceled, the mandate will be given to Gantz to try to form a coalition. Unless a unity government is formed, Gantz almost definitely won't be able to form a basic coalition and we'll be back at starting elections again in a few weeks anyway. Unless Netanyahu has another trick up his sleeve in the form of a way to keep the mandate that will allow him the opportunity to lead the way to forming a coalition. He might, but I have yet to hear an explanation as to why or how Bibi thinks the coalition formation will stay with him.

This evening Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister, announced the formation of a new party that will run in the upcoming elections. He failed before, and I don't expect much from him in this realm in the future. He is running with some accomplished people. Even if he is successful, I am not sure how it helps anyone on the Left, as his party will not be the ruling party. he will basically just be moving around the deck chairs on the Left a little bit more. He'll take some votes from Labor and Meretz and some from Kachol Lavan. Maybe a few from the center right as well, but not many. I don't get why he is running just to be a minor MK.

Regardless of that, I have enjoyed seeing the reactions online of right wingers lambasting him for running and scoffing that this will just help Bibi and is splintering the Left. They are all scoffing at him for something the Right has been doing every single election in the past 20 years - splintering the bloc. They all seem to think they know better and he is stupid for doing this, yet on the Right they are far greater experts and far more experienced in splintering the bloc and wasting votes. The Left has just a few parties and while this might be a splinter, it is nowhere near the proportions of the splintering on the Right.

If the Edelstein/Netanyahu initiative goes through, Barak will be left blowing in the wind. With the level of animosity between Netanyahu and Barak, I would not even be surprised that Netanyahu's entire goal in this initiative is to stick it to Ehud Barak!

I will not run in these elections, though I will consider it in the future. If they have a choice which Ehud they prefer, the public would prefer, they would not prefer the Ehud who is running. [Ehud Barak] coming back won’t make a difference. I will look at politics as an outsider for the time being.

  -- former PM Ehud Olmert, at the Jerusalem Post Conference, regarding speculation that he is considering running again for office. So he is, but not until next time at least. And he thinks Ehud Barak running is a waste of time.

the following ad, anonymously sponsored, has gone up around the country..



The ad calls for the politicians/parties on the Left to unite in order to win, or to not lose votes.

While the public, for now, does not know who is behind it, I suspect some clues might give us some direction..

1. Benny Gantz is pictured front and center - right in the middle. He is, for now, Netanyahu's main challenger.

2. Ehud Barak isn't even running, and while rumors have spread about the possibility of him joining a political party, it has not happened yet and there is no real indication that it will. He has spent the lats year or so very publicly calling for Netanyahu's downfall.

3. Lapid, Gantz, Yaalon and Ashkenazi have all been called Left by Netanyahu and others on the Right, though the reality about them is either different or ambiguous. Lapid is somewhere in the center but at least lapid's position can be debatable, as he has been in politics and his positions are known. Gantz has remained silent and nobody knows which way he leans or what his positions are no anything. Ashkenazi isn't even in politics, though he has been rumored to be considering joining the fray - though his positions are not known and one of the rumors had him possibly joining the Likud. Yaalon is a former Likudnik, though possibly more towards the Center, ie left end, of the party than the Right edge. Yet all of these people have been labeled as Left by Netanyahu, Likud and others following suit on the Right.

In my opinion we will eventually find out that this ad is someone on the Right, maybe even from the Likud or someone close to Netanyahu, throwing shade at these wannabes.

Another interesting thing about this ad is that in the signs that went up in Bnei Braq, the image of Tzippi Livni was left out. Livni's face was left out because Bnei Braq will not approve public ads bearing he images of women.

In response to this, Livni has put out a call as if she is a representative of all the women - Bnei Braq was not removing her but the faces of all women. As if she has been fighting the fight of all women and represents them. She's right that Bnei Braq erases all women from public spaces, as is done in many other places around Israel and even abroad, but Tzippi Livni is not representative of that and women who vote for her to fight this fight will most likely be sorely disappointed when she does not, as she has not.

NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

Book Review: My Country, My Life, by Ehud Barak

Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak has written his memoirs in the newly published book, by St. Martin's Press, My Country, My Life. The memoirs are not from one period in his life, or in his involvement in government or his time in the army, or the like. 

These are Barak's memoirs spanning his entire life - growing up on a kibbutz, serving in Sayeret Matkal, private life, army life , government life, and back to private life. Anybody growing up along with the foundation of the State surely has what to write about, memories worth sharing. A person who grew up with the state and was so involved in every aspect of the growth of the state throughout the years surely has memories worth sharing and worth being read, whether you agreed with his politics or not.

My Country, My Life is such a fascinating, intriguing, and captivating story that i am not even sure which part of it I felt more connected to, which captivated me the most. Very possibly it was Barak's memories of growing up on a left wing kibbutz, with no religion, just Zionism and a drive to build the State, describing what life was like back then. I have read a lot about the early days of the State of Israel, but his descriptions as a kibbutz child in those days are unique.

Another strong contender is Barak's days in Sayeret Matkal - the premier special forces unit of which he was one of the founding members. Barak describes, in great detail, some of the missions they were sent on, such as the infamous Sabena hijacking, the operation in Entebbe and other less famous and less widely known operations that were crucial for the security of the State of Israel.

The time as Prime Minister, and even Defense Minister, in the governments of Israel, seem more frustrating than brilliant. Barak took his strengths in planning and his detail oriented approach into government, but it did not help him with his efforts in making peace, which he describes as his prime focus when he went into government. 

It is interesting to see how he developed strong relationships over the years with figures like Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres, and how that advanced him and helped him succeed at various stages of his life - entering government, in the army, etc. but also how he tried to advance Rabin's legacy and how he was still able to worth with right wing governments when that was necessary.

Barak's relationship with Yasser Arafat took a tremendous change from when he was an army officer, looking to possibly killing Arafat and at least doing a lot of damage to his organization, to when Barak entered government and suddenly had to look at Arafat as a partner for peace, and how that frustrated him when he was willing to go to almost no ends to make peace offers that Arafat never seemed to reciprocate.

One of the most intriguing aspects of My Country, My Life is Barak's connection to a young Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi, and how that developed over the years. This connection is well known, as Barak was Netanyahu's commander in the Sayeret Matkal, but one can trace throughout the book the connections that keep coming up over the years and how their fates and careers were intertwined with each other. So much so that early on it had been predicted, over a decade earlier, that the two young up and coming stars would face off against each other in the 1996 elections -a prediction that would come true albeit off by just a few years. One can see how Barak did not like Netanyahu, from the beginning, and can get a feel his attitude abotu Netanyahu from the early days, though he continued to work with him for decades in a professional manner.

Barak describes Jerusalem, and other parts of the land recaptured in the 1967 Six Day War, and the feelings of being able to see and experience these parts of the country in words and descriptions that are just beautiful and emotive, and particularly interesting is his feelings about these despite growing up with practically no religious upbringing - it was just part of the early days of Zionism and the State of Israel.

The conclusion of the book, when Barak describes the bar mitzva ceremony of his class, on the secular kibbutz that was anti-religious, is poignant and touching, and even a bit surprising.

Anybody interested in the history of modern Israel should read My Country, My Life by Ehud Barak. It is that good.

• buy My Country, My Life on Amazon.com ($25.16)
• 
  

NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

I hope the situation will not arise that I will need to return to politics....When I think the situation is one that I must return, the situation must be very bad...

  -- Former PM Ehud Barak, at a ShabbaTarbut interview

I am pretty sure most people will agree that it must be pretty bad if Ehud Barak is returning..

I am the most ready and qualified to replace Netanyahu... It is no secret that many people come to me and tell me, come, let's get organized and establish something. I also hold a poll, one that I don't know who initiated, , but to the question "if you could have a direct election ad Netanyahu and Barak were running, who would you elect?", in the secular community I win, though in the general public he wins, though neither of us achieve 40%. 35% of the people do not know for whom they would vote, while Bibi is Prime Minister and I am just a citizen tweeting.

  -- Ehud Barak

too bad for Ehud Barak that:
a. elections include more people than just the secular community
b. Israel still does not have direct elections
c. he can't take over the Labor party. They already had primaries and selected a new chairman. Establishing a new party might be exciting for him, but it likely will not place him in direct competition with Bibi.
d. he is relying on the results of a poll that he does not even know who initiated. One of the surest ways to achieve disappointment

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, at a peace conference, said that Israel needs to initiate a unilateral separation between Israel and the Palestinians, or the situation will further deteriorate.

I imagine Barak is referring to a unilateral move similar to the Disengagement from Gaza.

Ehud Barak added that in such a unilateral move, Israel should make sure to hold onto certain areas like settlement blocs, Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and other strategic areas.

It might separate us from the Palestinians, but as we saw in Gaza that does not necessarily mean our problems are over. As long as such a move is unilateral, the Palestinians will continue saying it is not over and they did not get everything that is theirs. They will also be further emboldened to increase hostilities further, similar to the rockets coming out of Gaza since the Disengagement.

Been there, done that!

I wonder how Ehud Barak plans to deal with that.

I slept good last night - we brought quiet to the south... I am happy there were not too many incidents during the night and it passed relatively quietly in the south. The 'experience' absorbed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the past days wont bring them to attacking Israel in the near future...There wa sno expectation that Hamas would be brought to their knees or that they would disappear completely because of this operation - that would only be possible via a ground incursion into Gaza and conquering the Strip, but I am not sure that is a smart thing to do - he who goes into Gaza does not know how he will get out. I am not afraid of Gaza, nor do I miss it, but one doesnt start a military adventure just because of a mood...

  -- Defense Minister Ehud Barak

the image was snapped from the broadcast of Ehud Barak announcing the ceasefire taking effect. As you can see, at the same time Barak made his announcement, across the bottom of the screen flashed an announcement of sirens indicating incoming rockets to Be'er Sheva...

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If the Cabinet will want the IDF to capture and rule over Gaza, that is possible even today, if it will be found to be necessary...

  -- Minister of Defense Ehud Barak
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Headline Of The Day

Barak vs Yaalon: His Office Is Unnecessary

  -- Ynet

DM Ehud Barak said this about Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon when explaining to the Comptroller  (reading: laying blame) the failures of the Israeli flotilla response. In essence, Barak's claim is that their is a lack of efficiency caused by creating multiple offices that are all meant to deal with the same issues - defense, strategic affairs and others. Barak said that basically Yaalon, and others as well, is just an adviser to the PM with the status of a minister, and that this was done to create a glue to the coalition..

Boker Tov. We all know that there is absolutely no need other than internal politics to have such a massive government of 26 ministers. Most of the ministers offices should be disbanded and the government should be streamlines. It is way out of proportion.



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Quote Of The Day

We are a coalition of 94 MKs, this is the time to lead a diplomatic process. But if it isn't possible to reach a permanent agreement with the Palestinians, we must consider an interim arrangement or even a unilateral move. We are on borrowed time. We will reach a wall, and we'll pay the price. People who are now in a coma will then ask how we didn't see this coming.

  --- Minister of Defense Ehud Barak

Many have assumed that Barak's statement of a unilateral move means he is talking about possibly a Disengagement from the West Bank. Because he did not actually say that, another possibility might be that he is considering annexing the West Bank unilaterally.


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Quote Of The Day

As the one responsible for the defense of Israel I am not prepared to be in a situation in which we will be forced to say we were not prepared in time [for war] because we had not received authorization from a clerk in the Ministry of Finance. I believe in transparency no less than Minister of Finance Steinitz, but from my perspective what is important is the ability to actively function in the security operations.

  -- Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a discussion regarding a possible large-scale cut of the defense budget

Quote Of The Day

There is a very good chance that those who fire rockets at Israel will have their heads separated from their bodies by precise aerial strikes

  -- Defense Minister Ehud Barak